ANN ARBOR, Mich. -
The University of Washington's Eleanor McElvaine was the recipient of the West Region Assistant Coach of the Year award, the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) announced.

This is the first year the CRCA has honored assistant coaches. Winners from the other regions were: Pam Mork (Notre Dame) in the Central Region, Jim Mitchell (West Virginia) in the Mid-Atlantic Region and Cindy Biles (Connecticut) in the New England Region, along with Kara McPhillips (Virginia) and Kelly Lynch (Clemson) who tied for South-Region honors.

The award is "designed to honor a member CRCA Assistant Coach who has demonstrated outstanding commitment to his/her program, has had a significant impact on the success of his/her program, and who has demonstrated a high level of professionalism and integrity as a coach."

This will likely be the final honor McElvaine receives as an assistant coach as she was named Washington's head coach on Aug. 13. She replaced Jan Harville who resigned in June after 16 seasons at the helm of the UW women's program.

Washington is the first collegiate head coaching position for McElvaine, who served the last 13 years as the women's novice coach, both for the Huskies and U.S. Rowing. McElvaine's pupils formed the UW varsity four that posted three straight gold-medal performances at the NCAA Championships from 1999-2001.

McElvaine has also excelled as a coach on the national level. In 1994, both McElvaine and Harville were honored by U.S. Rowing with its Woman of the Year award for "outstanding service to rowing in the United States."

McElvaine was named head coach of the U.S. Junior National Team in 2000, and led the United States' four-oared crew to a gold medal at the 2000 Junior World Championships - the first gold medal ever won by the U.S. junior women - and a silver medal at the event in 2001.

In 2001, McElvaine was inducted into the Husky Hall of Fame as a member of the 1983 national champion women's crew. In four years as a collegiate rower from 1982-85, McElvaine helped Washington to three consecutive varsity eight national titles between 1983-85.

A native of Everett, Wash., McElvaine attended Cascade High School. She was voted the 1984 Everett Herald Woman of the Year in sports following her junior season at UW.